D Haoxi (Simon) Wang - Oshawa Generals, OHL (2025 Draft)

[HighLifeManIsHigh]

I’ve never seen him play, only looked at his stat line.

If this guy was named Brett Sullivan and he was born and raised in Thunder Bay, would he be ranked in the first round?

Genuinely curious

Edit: he plays junior B in Ontario and has played 8 games in the O with zero points. What’s the deal?

 

[bashbros32]

I’ve never seen him play, only looked at his stat line.

If this guy was named Brett Sullivan and he was born and raised in Thunder Bay, would he be ranked in the first round?

Genuinely curious

Edit: he plays junior B in Ontario and has played 8 games in the O with zero points. What’s the deal?

Listed at 6'6, 212lbs. NHL scouts/management=erect.

 

[PlayersLtd]

He's had more opportunities than 99.9% of players to ever set foot on NHL ice. He's been f***ing showered with developmental opportunities.

He's had more opportunity than a top Canadian talent who has been on the ice 6 days a week with the best players and coaches since before he learned to ride a bike?

How can you assert with a straight face that China has the same (or better?) development opportunities as Canada? Who cares if his mom owns 5 rinks. That's supposed to give him an edge over the academy kids that are on the ice for 14 hours per week in Canada?

I think you're vastly underestimating the value of being surrounded by the best resources the game has to offer day in and day out in the hockey hotbeds of the world. There's a reason why not a single Chinese national has broken into the league and it doesn't align with your opinion on the development opportunities in that country.

 

[Namejs]

Hey buddy you’re the one throwing a temper tantrum all over the thread because some child you never met may get drafted because you don’t like the country he’s from. The Great Chinese infrastructure that caused him to move to Canada as a young child just to play hockey? Use some common sense here. The Chinese leagues are not well organized, don’t contain structure. Uh yes the rinks are nice and this kid spent a lot of time becoming a great skater. Which has nothing to do with developing hockey players which is why Chinese junior leagues are non existent and nobody goes directly from China into a prominent junior league. Crappy little Latvian hockey schools produce a consistent and much more reliable stream of hockey players because there is some infrastructure which best no infrastructure.

Do you understand what Covid-19 was? He was not playing hockey in Canada when kid hockey in Canada was not happening due to the pandemic. It’s not that hard to understand. Once the pandemic ended, he came back to Canada and could play hockey in earnest. These are just facts.

Continue to spew all over the thread your bizarre hatred of this kid because you think he’s friends with Putin or whatever is motivating you.

You realized you lost the argument 2 posts ago, your ego is hurt and everything else is just you being defensive. Get over it, little guy.

Attack the argument and provide a single valid evidence-based point to back up your claims. That's all I'm asking.

Anyone who follows 2nd tier hockey knows me on these boards. It's exactly the reason I can tell this dude is not an NHL prospect. I watch and follow teams like Kazakhstan, I know the types of leagues these 2nd and 3rd rate junior kids play in.

You making that about China or politics is just weird and desparate. Stop derailing the thread and make a single valid point.

 

[Hinterland]

Listed at 6'6, 212lbs. NHL scouts/management=erect.

Cool but not unique. Radim Mrtka is 6'6/216lbs and he can make plays as well, is almost PPG on a bad team.

Size is a plus but not particularly helpful if you can't handle/control/play the puck.

 

[Namejs]

He's had more opportunity than a top Canadian talent who has been on the ice 6 days a week with the best players and coaches since before he learned to ride a bike?

How can you assert with a straight face that China has the same (or better?) development opportunities as Canada? Who cares if his mom owns 5 rinks. That's supposed to give him an edge over the academy kids that are on the ice for 14 hours per week in Canada?

I think you're vastly underestimating the value of being surrounded by the best resources the game has to offer day in and day out in the hockey hotbeds of the world. There's a reason why not a single Chinese national has broken into the league and it doesn't align with your opinion on the development opportunities in that country.

Did you read my post? I don't think you did.

Hockey in Beijing experienced an inflow of massive amounts of investment in 2015-22. A lot more kids picked up playing hockey. They got Canadian, Finnish, Czech, Russian, Latvian, you name it, coaches at all levels of hockey.

No one older than Wang's age has experienced the full effects of any of that.

China U18 national team played in Division 3A in 16/17. They have since moved up 2 tiers and are now playing in Division 2A.

In order to raise NHL talent you need numbers. What's lacking in China is a larger amount of kids playing hockey, there's simply not enough talent. They have infrastructure, they have the schools, they have the coaches and they have (or had pre-2022) the money. Which means you hit a ceiling in development at some point. In a 'crappy hockey school' in Latvia you hit that ceiling at age 15/16 and most of the talented prospects move abroad.

In Beijing post-2015, that ceiling is lower.

But to imply that you were not able to develop your skills there and that this guy is some unpolished gem is pure, unadulterated fantasy.

Just name a single player at age 17/18 who has completely transformed from a mediocre OJHL-tier player into an NHL regular.

Also, since he is playing in OHL this season, you have to expect extreme progress as the season goes along. If you expect him to be NHL-tier in a few years, he has to become a solid major junior player in the span of a year, right?

I sure will be waiting.

 

[WarriorofTime]

You realized you lost the argument 2 posts ago, your ego is hurt and everything else is just you being defensive. Get over it, little guy.

Attack the argument and provide a single valid evidence-based point to back up your claims. That's all I'm asking.

Anyone who follows 2nd tier hockey knows me on these boards. It's exactly the reason I can tell this dude is not an NHL prospect. I watch and follow teams like Kazakhstan, I know the types of leagues these 2nd and 3rd rate junior kids play in.

You making that about China or politics is just weird and desparate. Stop derailing the thread and make a single valid point.

What you didn’t prove anything. You made baseless conjecture that ignores all general attitudes and declares yourself the smartest guy in the room. Why would BU offer him a spot to play hockey if they thought he was topped out? Are they stupid? You’ve made no points or provided no evidence. You stated he’s has a golden decelopmemt which makes no sense. Why would he leave his country if that were the case in China? He’s just like players like Daniel Sprong and Nathan Walker as far as non trad hockey countries. They all had to leave their country at a certain age point around age 12 because there’s just nowhere else to go domestically and they wouldn’t be able to play in a serious junior league if they had hung around. You’ve refuted none of that. I’ve refuted you multiple times but you refuse to acknowledge and just declare yourself the “winner” based on nothing. Like a Russian coach said the rink was nice? Ok? That doesnt mean kids would be ready to play in the MHL. Youre absolutely clueless if you think Kazakhstan and Latvia and other crappy little hockey countries are even comparable to the struggles to become a hockey player in a place like China. You should look more at like Great Britain and Lithuania and various other places that don’t have proper hockey youth infrastructure.

You made it about politics because you insist he’s only going to get drafted for his nationality. You obviously think you are smarter than everybody else if you cannot even accept any other possibility.